[SOLVED] how to setup network interface configuration for local bridge to connect two vms

[piddy]

I'm looking for a detailed explanation of how to configure the network interfaces on two vms to connect them to the same local bridge. My use case is a TrueNAS Scale VM that I want to access from a debian server VM where I'll run plex.

I've set up a new bridge under networking (called 'media'). My intention is to make this 'virtual switch' available to the two VMs only. I want the plex VM to access a smb share on the TrueNAS VM. Being a virtual switch, I'm expecting the bridge network to be quick (10+ Gb/s). The trouble is, I can't ping one VM from the other!

I've added the bridge to the hardware of each VM. On the TrueNAS VM, I've configured the interface of the media bridge (in my case 'enp6s18') so that its ip address is 10.0.100.21. I've then edited the debian VM network interfaces file (with the command 'sudo nano /etc/networks/interfaces'), to add the following lines:

auto enp6s18
 address 10.0.100.22
 netmask 255.255.255.0
 gateway 10.0.100.1

I've then rebooted the debian VM to apply the above changes. I checked they'd been applied by running:

ip a

... but it didn't show any change to the interface. So then I ran:

sudo ip addr add 10.0.100.22/24 dev enp6s18

... that attached the ip address to the interface (confirmed by running 'ip a' again); but when I try to ping the TrueNAS VM

ping 10.0.100.21

I get the error:

ping: connect: Network is unreachable

I've hit my limit of switch networking / layer 2 network communications. Any guidance / help would be fantastic.

Thank you in advance.

p

 

[piddy]

For anyone stumbling on this thread, the problem was the /etc/networks/interfaces file. The entry for the internal bridge should be:

auto [INTERFACE, e.g enp6s18]
iface [INTERFACE, e.g enp6s18] inet static
 address [IP_ADDRESS, e.g. 10.0.1.100]
 netmask [NETMASK, e.g. 255.255.255.0]

There's no need to set a gateway ip address